


Background Love

by 29PheonixLement



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F, idea based on a picture, small splash of Kennedy/ Willow relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:02:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29844681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/29PheonixLement/pseuds/29PheonixLement
Summary: Another of my Buffy two-part one-shots.
Relationships: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers, Tara Maclay & Dawn Summers, Tara Maclay/Willow Rosenberg, Willow Rosenberg & Dawn Summers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Willow & Tara](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/770628) by charmed-slayers.tumblr.com. 



She hadn’t internally meant to snoop. It was just Willow’s phone had gone off and she’d been the first of the two of them close enough to pick it up. Willow had been in the shower with Kennedy mulling over the idea of joining her and taking advantage of a rare bit of ‘them time’ given the house was eerily quiet.

So, what if she and Willow had been bickering more and more lately. So, what if her fiery Wicca had even gone so far as to kick Kennedy out of what should be their room whilst they both cooled off from the last argument they’d gotten into.

A shared shower saved on water usage and even with the upgrade of crashing at the hotel like mansion of Buffy’s ex and oddly enough yet another vampire Angel. “You sure have a type huh Buff.” Kennedy remembers teasing as she begins stripping off her shirt in favor of the black tank beneath it the longer, she listens to the water run in the bathroom down the hall.

Besides, she could always cover her snooping by pointing out that what if it were Buffy or Faith or someone else in Willow’s little gang needing back up or something?

It wasn’t like this was Kennedy’s way of making sure her girlfriend wasn’t cheating on her before their inevitable reconciliation. One that if she was lucky just might happen sooner rather than later if she could catch Willow before the red-haired Wicca finished her shower.

Just one quick check then the time fun could start. Kennedy grinned at the thought as she swipes over to read the recently received message.

Turns out it was only Dawn texting about dinner options as well as reminding Willow about saving her number into the contacts of the new phone the tech-savvy Wicca was still in the process of setting up having lost her first during her darker days.

Something about the device being a casualty of a heavily charged lightning blast Kennedy vaguely remembers hearing.

Dawn hadn’t been all that thrilled with Kennedy’s choice to tag along when the younger Summers and Willow had gone out, but Kennedy had shrugged her off then soon slipped off on her own once they’d settled on a store to go look at the knives and maybe chat up the cute blonde working the counter while the other two shopped around for Willow’s new phone.

Turns out it was just Dawn asking about dinner options for when she and a few other potentials start heading back toward the house after yet another round of patrols.

Kennedy rolled her eyes typing out a quick text of her own with at least what she wanted them to pick up food-wise before adding in something for Willow as an afterthought before hitting send. It would be good to have another ace up her sleeve after she’d finished making up to her girlfriend and getting herself un kicked out of her preferred bedroom.

It was only after she’d clicked the screen back to Willow's 'home page’ that Kennedy felt her insides drop like led and all chances for a smooth get back together trist in the shower a hollow dream.

Now she understood just why Willow would always get that little smile that had Kennedy so completely paranoid she’d already been replaced whenever Willow would glance at her phone screen. If she was being honest, coming face to face with the real reason for the heart-eyed smirk Kennedy would have preferred if Willow _was_ seeing another woman then Kennedy would have a reason to head over to said woman’s house and make it clear that Willow was _her_ girl.

The image Willow had set for her background wasn’t internally a bad one. A frozen moment of time when the more ‘original Scooby gang’ had been having fun at the Bronze. The picture taken by Dawn, Kennedy supposed or maybe Buffy or possibly even Xander given just how tightly the two women were holding one another whilst grinning at the camera, but it didn’t make the second of the two women any easier to look at as Kennedy’s gaze reminded trained on the screen.

Tara.

“You’d think she’d be over you by now.” Kennedy groaned glaring at the grinning blonde as if she could hear her. “Seriously you’re not even alive anymore and you’re still coming between Will and me.”

The frozen image of Willow’s slain ex-lover and fellow Wicca continued to mock her whilst Kennedy’s eyes stung with angry tears.

“Kennedy, what the hell.”

Trust Willow to walk back into what should be their room just in time to catch Kennedy crushing the phone in her hand as easily as if it were an empty soda can.

“What the hell yourself, Will.” The stung slayer fired back “keeping some dead woman’s picture on your phone when you have a very real _alive_ woman wanting to be with you.”

“Just because you and I were together at one point---” Willow started to protest only angering Kennedy more as the red-haired Wicca knelt to carefully collect the broken bits of her crushed cell phone from the floor after Kennedy had dropped it.

“We are still together Willow but apparently I’m the only one of us even trying to keep up my end of this relationship.” Kennedy cuts in enjoying the way Willow’s tank top was rolling up showing a Slayer level workout toned strip of her girlfriend’s back.

For a quick second Willow’s eyes bleed into black as she meets Kennedy’s over her shoulder but then she blinks, and the inky black has mostly faded to a dull smoky grey anyone would mistake for the Wicca’s normal eye color. A real testament to Willow’s fight to keep from letting her grief, pain, or her anger guide her magic use. If she was being honest Kennedy had been seeing Willow use less and less magic in the days since leaving Sunnydale.

“Were you keeping your end when you slept with Shiloh? Or Grace? Sara? Amber? Alyson? Or was it Kenzi?”

Kennedy’s jaw twitched as her arms locked over her front. “You and I were on a break by then so what I did with Shi or any of the others don’t count.”

The following fight isn’t a long one, but it is a bloody one at least on Kennedy’s side of things.


	2. Her Light in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please see the end note. 
> 
> All comments welcome. Thanks for reading. 
> 
> PS: fair warning this chapter gets a little steamy toward the end.

_Well, at least I get to keep my skin._

It’s a morbid but comforting thought as Kennedy rolled over onto her back with a pained groan. _From not being able to do a single push-up to taking down a full-on slayer._ Kennedy had to admit she was more than a little impressed with Willow’s growing skills in the ways of non-magic-related self-defense.

Kennedy vividly remembered hearing Willow telling Dawn her least favorite subject in high school being gym then giggling about _‘now look at me, I basically live in here now.’_ As the two stretched out in the makeshift gym they’d made of one of the more conference-looking rooms.

“Willow? Will you still here?”

Buffy’s voice provided a distraction whilst Kennedy lays painting amid the broken bits of what had been a supporting wall after that last power-charged kick to her stomach nearly knocked the young slayer unconscious on top of knocking the wind out of her.

“Get down here, we have something to show you.” Dawn’s voice now joins Buffy’s at Willow’s answering confirmation of her whereabouts as she climbs to her feet flicking wooden splinters from her ripped sweatpants with a flick of her wrist.

“Uhm. I’m sorry which one of us got the big shiny no strings attached prize for saving the world _Again_?” Buffy’s voice cuts in inevitably spinning the conversation into a mini-sisterly bickering match.

“When I come back, you better not be here.” Kennedy didn’t know what she was more afraid of the deathly calm of Willow’s voice or the fact that neither her eyes nor her hair have a single hint of black in them as she headed for the stairs the same instant a gaggle of Kennedy’s fellow slayers came stomping up the steps.

“Wow, Willow what happened you stand downwind of a woodchipper or something?” one of the younger teens (Leanna maybe?) giggles noting the evident amount of splintered wood bits clinging to Willow’s clothes and in her hair that was until she like the others spot Kennedy sprawled beaten yet breathing on the floor over Willow’s shoulder.

Only a beat later the other slayers begin hurrying as quickly as they could in the opposite direction. Many of them too nervous to risk possibly angering the fuming Wicca more by offering Kennedy any kind of aid.

It takes Kennedy a few more long seconds after the others had left to get her bearings enough to stagger back not just to her feet but toward her room. The ringing in her ears lulling just enough when she’d tripped her way into one of the now fun house mirroring slideways slanted hallways to allow the battered slayer to catch Willow’s puzzling exclamation:

“Buffy, _please_ tell me you didn’t use your wish for shoes.”

Triggering a full-on laugh from the woman Kennedy and a few of the other potentials had come to quietly nicknamed the ‘original Sunnydale slayer’. “Of course, not Wills.” Buffy laughed before the ringing in her ears became too loud for Kennedy to continue her eavesdropping.

*****

“Going somewhere?” Dawn probes the same time Buffy lets out a motherly kind of “What the heck happened to you?” as Kennedy limps to a stop halfway down the steps armed with a single duffle packed with the few possessions she’d collected since she’d helped destroy the Hellmouth Sunnydale edition, but Kennedy’s gaze never wavers from the yet to break apart couple still clinging to one another as if the world would ripped apart a second time should they separate.

Despite not having a clear view other than the back of Willow’s ripped tank top there was something staringly familiar about the blonde-haired woman now wrapped wraths like around the sobbing redhead.

“It’s getting cramped here.” Kennedy says her voice as weak as her battered body felt all the while fighting down the flush of attraction growing inside her as soon as those curious blue eyes lock with her own almost swollen closed ones “and that Hellmouth Glasses said was in Cleveland or whatever it was isn’t going to defend itself.”

“You mean the one Faith and Robin left yesterday to go check out?” Buffy questions her arms like Dawn’s now crossed over her front as she looks over Kennedy’s beaten appearance.

“Can’t hurt to have more than one slayer around, Buffy.” Kennedy argued holding back a pained hiss when she shifted her weight wrong sending throbbing pain from several points in her battered body. “and come on even Faith and Robin need help every once in a while.”

“Y—Y You’re a slayer too?”

Kennedy scoffed at the soft-spoken question earning twin glares from the Summer’s sisters. Willow’s back stiffened as well but not even that prompted her to turn around in the tight circle of arms sling around her middle rubbing calming little circles against the middle of her back.

“Seems you still have a lot of catching up to do Blondie.” Kennedy coughed making another start toward the front doors her hastily packed duffle bag scrapping painfully against an angry bruise forming on her hip as she walked.

“But you’re hurt. You can’t possibly go wondering around like this even if you are a slayer.” The newcomer argues probably wondering why the other three were making no attempt to stop her.

Kennedy would have laughed if her ribs weren’t bruised up and threatening to crack if she so much as took too deep a breath and her mouth wasn’t tainted with the taste of her own blood as she wheels around to face the bossy newcomer.

“Look just ‘cause I let Red here kick my ass don’t mean I can’t take care of myself.” She argues as unfocused grey eyes glare in the direction of concerned blue ones. “I know I look like crap but as much as I would have deserved it if she had Will, didn’t use a single spell to cause any of this okay this was all hand-to-hand fighting that just got a little out of hand.” She clarifies before anyone (blurry but cute blonde) could jump to any conclusions about Willow once again falling off the ‘Good Witch’ wagon.

“Ask Buffy or Dawn they can tell you flat out that well that I’ve been asking for it with how I’ve been treating her the last few weeks and she finally got around to putting me in my place.” Kennedy goes on trying her best to downplay just how much pain she was really in as the attractive blonde untangles herself from a guilty-looking Willow. True, she might have messed up time and time again when it came to the fiery-spirited Wicca woman but even with her eyes almost swollen closed, Kennedy could see the love the couple had for one another.

“Dawnie mind bringing me an um a f-f fr--first aid kit?” Cute blonde asks the little stutter in her voice intriguing the bloodied slayer “I’m pretty sure they’d have one somewhere.”

“Tara—"

Kennedy’s breath hitches in a strained gasp , the recognition not from hearing the name of the supposed to be dead woman suddenly standing alive in the middle of the lobby with them but from getting a clearer look at the clothes the newcomer was wearing; that gold dress with its tight light blue corset an outfit that Kennedy had first seen at least from the back not so long ago when she’d been made into a backup dancer her first trip to Sunnydale for an early admissions college tour only to be snagged in the town-wide curse of singing and dancing like she was trapped in some demonic musical thing.

“She can leave if she still wants to in the morning, but I’m not letting her go out in her condition tonight. It’s too dangerous.” Tara argues pointedly not looking in Willow’s direction as she spoke.

Had her head not been about to split in two from pain Kennedy would most defiantly be swooning at the tantalizing fire in Tara’s icy blue eyes as she begins herding Kennedy toward one of the comfier sofas the lobby offered to start looking over her injuries.

Heck, even Buffy and Dawn looked a little hot under the collars at the take-charge tone when the latter came back with the asked for first aid kit.

“Dawn and I will take care of her.” Buffy decides as soon as Kennedy seemed to be comfortable as possible given her battered condition. Tara kneeling beside the edge of the black leather sofa rummaging through the open box at her side.

“And make double sure she won’t leave until she’s better capable of protecting herself.” Dawn agreed sharing a sympathetic little smile with Willow before the guilty-looking redhead went back to examining her shoes.

“I am a little tired considering I was just brought back to life.” Tara nodes seeming pleased with the offer as well, “So about the rooming situation—" she goes on hesitant now.

Dawn was already on her way toward the front desk with a dull “you want a square view or one of the back dumpsters.” That had only Tara, Buffy, and Dawn herself chuckling to hear. “Gotta warn you thought the room with the dumpster view cast way more. It’s like the VIP of all the blocks dumpsters that one.” The younger girl jokes coming back to them, room key in hand.

“Thanks, Dawnie.” Tara smiles glancing at the room number engraved on it (410) when it was handed over then pulling the teary-eyed brunette in for a sisterly type of bear hug.

“I’m just glad your back.” Dawn sobs her hands fisting in the silky fabric of the back of Tara’s dress as she cries into the other woman’s shoulder.

What did surprise Kennedy was that Tara and Buffy only parted with an understanding node between them before Tara starts off toward the stairs to find her room only to pause with a puzzled glance over her shoulder when the last of their little group made no move to follow her.

“Hey, my strong Amazon,”

Willow’s head immediately lifted at the teasing call making Kennedy give a weak giggle while Buffy helped her peel away her bloodied shirt and Dawn started dabbing at the long cut underneath with the alcohol-soaked whip. 

The red head’s eyes widening in surprise at Tara’s outstretched hand in her direction. “Mind helping me find my room?”

******

“So, that um that girl—”

“Kennedy.” Willow offers guilt already layering her voice as she picks at a stray thread of the comforter. Trust Dawn to make Tara’s room the hotel’s equivalent of the ‘honeymoon suite’ but at least she’d been able to steer Tara away from the destruction that had become of Willow’s own assigned room.

“She’s c-ccute.” Tara offers having relocated to one of the chairs sitting closer to the room’s adjoining bathroom leaving Willow free reign of making herself more comfortable on the queen-sized bed.

The blonde fresh of a cleansing shower now dressed in one of the rooms looser complimentary robes leaving her dress (and only other option when it came to clothes) tossed away over the back of the other open chair by the closed blinds of the room’s only window.

Willow’s head dips even lower. “She was just a distraction. Like using magic had been before we’d broken up before. I was selfish I know that now—I—I missed you so much that I just wanted the pain to stop any way I could make it and---”

Tara’s finger pressed against Willow’s lips quieting her while the rest of her follows suit in climbing up onto the end of the bed. Willow immediately closing her eyes when the move caused the ties on the front of Tara’s robe to loosen.

“We’ll get back to the magic thing later.” Tara decided without removing her finger from Willow’s lips “but will you please stop feeling so guilty about starting a new relationship after I--- well—"

Willow peeked up just in time to see Tara’s free hand scratching at the thin white scar marring her delicate skin. The single tangible reminder to both of what had happened that deadly afternoon. Trust Cordelia to have the scar covering that horrible bullet wound into what could be considered a star.

At once Willow’s fingers closed around Tara’s wrist tugging her hand away before her itching fingers could draw blood. It was bad enough she had to see the red scratches of Tara’s short, trimmed nails left behind without getting any more painful flashbacks to a day she absolutely wants to forget.

“S—sorry.” Tara whispered giving Willow a flash of that shy girl she’d first seen in that ‘wanna be’ Wicca group as her head dropped shielding her face with her hair. “It’s just—it st stings. The the umm t-the burn.” She tried to explain.

“They didn’t send you back with it still in you, did they?” Willow asks horrified with Tara’s finger still pressed against her lips the question came a bit garbled whilst Tara herself shifts against the mattress with an uncomfortable whimper as if her very skin were being tormented by fire ants.

Buffy had said that her wish had been a no-strings-attached deal. Tara alive and free to live out the life that had been snatched from her by that stray bullet fired by a retreating coward of a man.

By the Goddess how Willow wishes she could make the man suffer all over again for causing her Tara such pain.

Tara shakes her head dropping her hand from Willow’s mouth “No, no of course not.” She soothes gritting her teeth in an attempt to get whatever stinging pain she was feeling back under control. “but that doesn’t mean they could take the mental scars the trauma caused away just as easily as when they took out the bullet.” She clarifies. “C Cordy said there might be some phantom pains cause of the you know ‘cause the trauma of being shot and all, but once I’ve properly readjusted to being alive again, they should go away.”

“You met Cordelia?” Willow gaped not expecting that little tidbit of information.

Tara nodes with a teasing grin “She figured you and Buffy would be surprised by that but yeah, she was the Power that granted Buffy’s wish in bringing me back.”

Willow blinked surprised until something else that had been bothering her pushed it way back into the front of her mind “But it’s not like when Buffy was brought back thought right?”

Tara’s fingers lift Willow’s chin until the two were looking directing at one another. “It was beautiful. Heaven I mean.” Tara answered after a hesitant pause, “but it wasn’t the ideal paradise it was for everyone else because I didn’t have my favorite ginger-haired vixen giving me snuggles whenever I was feeling sad.”

They really couldn’t say which one leaned in first only that one second they were sitting rather close together on the overly large bed the next Tara was straddling Willow’s lap her hands already slipped up under Willow’s tank top to massage Willow’s breast with Willow’s own hands tugging impatiently on the ties holding Tara’s robe closed while their tongue gently toyed with one another as their shared kiss deepened into something much, much more heated.

“Wait—”

Willow was surprised by how strong her voice was considering how muddled her brain was becoming after Tara had finished stripping her of her tattered tank top and she’d succeeded in loosening the tie on the front of that dang robe.

“What’s wrong?”

The worry in Tara’s eyes was like a white-hot knife between Willow’s ribs. “I want this baby.” She promises leaning in for another rough kiss. “Goddess how I want this.” She sighs chasing Tara’s lips when the blonde started pulling away.

“But.” A breathless Tara prompts her hands linking back behind Willow’s neck while Willow’s hands drop to steady her hips as Tara balances against her lap.

“but as much as I want this, we can’t just skip everything and jump right to the kissing like we did before.” Willow reasons already hating herself for saying it.

Tara lets out a slow breath as she nods in agreement. Not that that agreement entailed her climbing off Willow’s lap anytime soon if Willow had anything to say about it if the tightening of her arms around Tara’s lower back were anything to go by. “You’re right. Especially now after well, after all, that’s happened.” She agrees twisting the little curls at the back of Willow’s neck around her fingers. “so, while we’re taking things slower how about you come with me into the bathroom and let me wash all these wood bits from your hair and we go from there?”

Willow gives a bashful grin as she nods in agreement. “I think I can handle that.” She mumbles holding back a pained groan when Tara climbs off her lap to stand beside the bed. Her resolve wavers considerably as soon as Tara starts pushing off the covering protection of her bathrobe making the already damp front of Willow’s sweatpants a lot wetter than before.

“It’s only fair I have some kind of clothes on too.” The teasing blonde reasons pulling Willow’s stolen tank top over her head. The already stolen tank only coming to Tara’s belly button leaving her nether regions completely exposed to Willow’s wavering glances when the resurrected Wicca starts off toward the bathroom her discarded robe tossed away onto the floor.

“Coming baby?”

Willow was already halfway across the room before the question was half-formed. “Keep playing your cards right and you will be, Maclay.” She promises pressing the giggling blonde back against the doorframe as her mouth reclaimed Tara’s in another heated kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would anyone like to read a possible 'M' rated bonus chapter for this?


End file.
